They will be cutting 1 billion euros each month!

This year’s measure package, which is to be presented soon by the Finance minister, will include a padlock to more than two dozens public organizations but also broader cuts in wages, social benefits and exemptions.

Giorgos Papakonstantinou’s plan, which is being drafted with the help of vice minister Filippos Sahinidis, will provide for additional austerity measures whereby the State will have to cut about 1bil euros per month, in order to save up to 7bil more than what is in this year’s budget. These measures will include:

* non-renewal of employment and project contracts that are ending, and freezing of recruitment in the narrow and broader public sector
* “sudden death” (although it was announced both by the present government 18 months ago and by ND in 2008) to dozens of forgotten and… useless entities out of a total of 1.601. They will start with those who overlap with each other, among which are dozens of research centers and institutes with a similar object (e.g. employment, metallurgy, textile and leather processing, etc.). They will then assess whether or not to remove dozens of other entities from 2012 onwards
* layoffs of workers in entities that are being eliminated, in cases where they can’t be absorbed elsewhere
* sale of the State’s participation in companies, within the year if possible, with recruitment of privatization consultants for OTE, PPC, ELTA etc.

Meanwhile, they are considering implementing the income criterion within this year (even for actual or imputed property) for the provision of social aid and allowances, and will also announce which exemptions will be lost for thousands of beneficiaries, depending on the amount of income they declared in this year's tax returns.